'Penny Dreadful': Eva Green soars

Season 1 comes to a conclusion as Vanessa and Sir Murray track down Mina, while Victor has to decide whether or not to find the creature a bride. "Penny Dreadful" airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime. (Showtime)

Hal BoedekerStaff writer

"Do you really want to be normal?" a character asked in the gripping season finale of "Penny Dreadful" Sunday night.

The line nicely sums up the Victorian thriller, which has put its characters through vivid, terrifying adventures out of the ordinary. The Showtime drama has offered Grade-A horror ranging from vampirism to possession to fantastic experiments.

The question of normality was posed to Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), who had it worst in the series' first season. In a breakthrough performance. Green has smoldered as a troubled psychic, preyed on by demons and guilt-ridden about her choices. Green conveys vulnerability and fury with equal skill, and she will be the main reason to check back in next year for the second season.

"Penny Dreadful" is also a triumph for creator John Logan, whose writing credits include "Gladiator," "Skyfall" and "The Aviator." Logan borrowed characters from "Dracula," "Frankenstein" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and put them in bizarre adventures with his own tormented creations.

"I think we all have secrets and shadows," Logan wrote in a letter to critics before the show premiered. "How we grapple with them defines who we are. That's why I wrote 'Penny Dreadful.' "

The first season offered a satisfying conclusion to the characters' central mission of finding the missing daughter of Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton).

Along the way, the series delivered remarkably chilling sequences: the arrival of Frankenstein's monster (Rory Kinnear, who is terrific); a seance that was a physical and emotional workout for Vanessa; and nasty showdowns with vampires.

As the first season ended, Logan deftly established plots for the second season, such as the creation of a bride for Frankenstein and the mystery of a gunslinger, Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett), who helped Sir Malcolm.

The season finale left Vanessa at a crossroads as she shared her belief in curses, demons and monsters. Whatever comes next, "Penny Dreadful" has been a stellar mix of secrets and shadows.